For students who have been offered, and have accepted, admission to a university for Fall 2020 where automatic merit aid is given, a couple questions:
The offer letter states that the merit scholarship can be used for up to 8 semesters. Can this be rescinded in future years (Sophomore- senior) if state/ university revenues are heavily impacted by the pandemic? Or, is it more likely that the existing offer is solid but won't be as generous for future enrollment cohorts?
If the merit aid was offered to an OOS student, are they more likely to have the scholarship revoked in future years since their families aren't contributing to the state tax base?
I know there are a number of families whose children are attending, or will attend, schools with very generous automatic merit aid. Particularly where the reduction or elimination might suddenly mean paying OOS tuition costs, this could be something that really influences some decisions!
I’d appreciate if anyone out there on CC has some insights to share.
IMO there is no way to forecast how state budget cuts will affect merit scholarships offered. I believe schools will do all they can to meet their agreements but State legislatures can pass a law at any time preventing that. Are there some specific schools you are considering? That may give you more relevant info.
The best baseline assumption is that future enrollment cohorts might not be offered such generous merit and/or the cutoffs for receiving it will be raised. This happens already and might accelerate next year.
The other thing to consider is that renewal usually requires a particular GPA to be achieved. Colleges that have granted some flexibility to underperforming students in past years might take a harder line now.
@“Erin’s Dad” - I suppose it was meant as more of generic question for schools with strong merit aid (UA, UofSC, UMiss, UNM as examples), and whether there are any examples or insights people have on when offered merit aid has been removed (not for poor academic performance).
It is a topic that can potentially impact my family personally, but I didn’t want to start a school or family specific analysis here.
I agree with you that it is impossible to forecast what will happen- this post may just my anxieties peeking through into a discussion board.
Historically, large publics have not done this (I have heard of some privates acting shady in this regard, however). If you think about it, it makes sense: Not only would it be unfair to students but large publics have more levers to pull to make numbers work: they could take in more full-pay transfers (they typically take in a good number already) or just admit more and cram more students in to the same number of classes. And the cost savings may not be that big if students who lose their scholarship transfer away.
IMO, I don’t think this should be a high-level worry compared to many other issues to worry about.
Not sure about public universities but many private universities state with the merit award that it is guaranteed for 8 semesters providing that the students maintain a specified GPA. This minimum is usually a 3.0 but I have seen the requirement as high as 3.7. That would be stated in your award letter.
The latter has been a trend over the last several years, where colleges’ automatic merit scholarships are reduced or made harder to get for the following years’ applicants. There is this older list at http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ that shows how many more big automatic merit scholarships were available several years ago; most of them are no longer available, smaller, or harder to get (e.g. competitive instead of automatic).
For students who have earned a merit scholarship, check carefully on the renewal criteria. Very high college GPA requirements can result in easy loss of scholarship, and a college facing budget issues may be less likely to exercise discretionary leniency with a student who (for example) earned a 3.59 GPA but has a scholarship that specifies a 3.60 GPA to renew.
^ Big offset to that trend was the FL Benacquisto.
But who knows how long that will last.
Also, the Stamps has expanded.
Smaller less publicized offset are little-known LACs discounting more aggressively.
So it’s on average tougher to get a big (full-tuition/ride) scholarship but probably easier to attend a private at rates a little above an in-state public.
My kids both had merit scholarships that were good for 8 CONSECUTIVE semesters, had a required gpa and a few other things to check off (good standing, for example). The Florida Bright Futures required 12 credits per semester and certain courses did not count (remedial courses, repeated courses) and once you lost the award it could not be reinstated.
What happened to both kids was the schools changed the award programs after they started and they both were ‘stuck’ with the program as they received it. One had a set amount that was a lot lower than the next admitted class, so while freshmen were getting $2-3k more, they were all paying the same tuition. The other had a set scholarship and 2 smaller grants. The school eliminated the 2 grants and increased the merit amount for the incoming class, so those on the ‘old’ program got less. Still kept the grants, but they weren’t as much as the increased grants the new kids got.
I think schools do keep their promises, and if you meet the renewal requirements you’ll keep your award.
My D is committed to attend a school (in-state) that offers auto merit for stats. Students must maintain a 3.0, earn 30 credit hours per academic year, and live on campus for minimum 2 years. Value of merit varies based on stats.
Another local U she considered also offers merit for stats. We have been watching that one for a few years, and have seen the stat requirements increase each year over the past 3. A friend of mine has 2 students there, and she says they have to be very careful to watch their grades as well as their credit hours to make sure they don’t lose the merit. Dropped classes, etc. can be a problem.
Also keep in mind that tuition usually increases every year.
If you have a full tuition scholarship, no matter how much tuition increases, you know that it is going to be covered.
if you get 30k/year tuition scholarship for 4 years
year one tuition is 40k, you pay $10k
year 2 tuition is $42k, you pay 12k
year 3 tuition is $44,100, you pay $14, 100
year 4 tuition is $46,305 you pay $16, 305over
the course of 4 years your tuition cost have increased $12,405. Room, board fees will also probably increase over the years.
I think a 4 year merit aid is pretty safe, but I was and am very nervous about grant aid that needs to be reapplied for each year, in fact in our case my ds 20 and us decided to turn down Syracuse which only offered a one year at a time merit aid package to him, it would have been the top of the amount we would have wanted to pay, really about 5k over with the package, case is 74 k a year , but if he lost any part of the package it would have been very hard to make up so we passed on case in favor of a merit aid package that was Locke din for 4 years.
